The Little Movie That Could: Twisted Seduction VS 50 Shades of Grey

The Little Movie That Could: 

Twisted Seduction VS 50 Shades of Grey

In the summer of 2010, I was visiting my family in Montreal which is where I'm originally from (now living in Toronto) and I started getting bored after the 2nd week (I love them and all, but spending evenings with folks in their 70's can be a bit boring, sorry mom and dad! )

At the beginning of my 3rd week vacation, I started to read the local paper to find cultural events to go to (anything other than staring at the walls with my parents) and I took notice of an annual film festival taking place in Montreal, the Fantasia International Film Festival. I'd never been to a Film Festival before and thought... why not. I should check this out, with so much time on my hands.

It did not take long to realize that most movies in that festival are 'genre' films (horror, zombies or very unique from the usual mainstream films). Since I'm not big on horror films, I started to search for movies in the festival that might get my interest.

The only one that really appealed to me was a psychological drama. A twisted love story where the main character (a handsome, genius mathematician) kidnaps a carefully selected professional female with hope to make her fall in love with him.

I went there with very low expectations since it only had a $30,000 budget. But as the movie went on, I started getting emotionally involved with the characters and fell head over heals with the story. The film looked like any Hollywood movie out there. It didn't look like any independent films I had ever seen before. (I found out later after reading their website that they used Red HD cameras, the same cameras they used for films like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Social Network, Thor etc).

To this day, it is one of the absolute best movies I've ever seen. The ending had several twists and left me flabbergasted. I had just lived a true authentic movie experience and wanted more. It was unlike the usual crap from Hollywood.

The film stayed on my mind for weeks (and still to this day). When I got home, I became a Facebook fan and started searching on the internet to find out who in the world had made this masterpiece, why it had such a low budget and why Hollywood wasn't making more films like it.

It turns out that the filmmakers are just a couple of friends. Dominique Adams and Tom Broadwell, former fitness instructors on a cruise ship who became best friends and decided (after the end of their contracts) to invest their own savings and make their dream (of making a movie) come true (you can read the whole story on their movie site http://twistedseductionmovie.com/?page_id=98 on how it all happened or watch Dom & Tom talk about how it all came about here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjx6OKAwiPQ ).

Month after month, I read their Facebook updates. Reviews from film critics came in (excellent ones) and comments from different people from all over the world are constantly coming in as well and everyone seems to share my opinion, that this film is a special gem.

I wrote to them on Facebook to find out if the movie was going to be in movie theaters soon (since I told many of my friends about it and they wanted to see it) and they got straight back to me and told me that they could not find a distributor who wanted to take a chance on two unknowns. They've been told that movies in theaters have to be driven by star power or to be of a popular genre and their little film had neither.

Regular Facebook updates kept coming into my Newsfeed with some interesting stuff such as a post with a link to an article written by Dominique in the Huffington Post, about his current struggle to make it in the movie business titled : 'Can I come in already?' (full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dominique-adams/can-i-come-in-already_b_1408693.html )

To sum up the article, Dominique spent two years of his life trying to get 'Twisted Seduction' into movie theaters and eventually ran out of money, so he had to go back to working on a cruise ship to 'survive'. I can't believe someone with such  f***ing talent hasn't been picked up yet, it blows my mind.

Another year went by and I was happy to read that Snag Films had acquired the film for online streaming.

I was happy to watch it again, but I assumed that it would be the end of it. But last week, I saw a new press release on their Facebook page. Adams is planning a remake of 'Twisted Seduction' to come out next summer and compete against '50 Shades of Grey' (the full release here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/9/prweb11149314.htm).

I have a degree in Marketing and Journalism from McGill university and I can tell you right now that this is a winning strategy. Dominique managed to deliver a strategy that provides a headline grabber '50 Shades of Grey VS Twisted Seduction' for an avalanche of viral posts. People love underdog stories. They love rooting for the little guy!

Let's sum things up. We now have a movie to compete against '50' in a trendy new popular genre (a story that is already beloved by most who have seen it. Check out this amazing compilation of fan reviews here: http://twistedseductionmovie.com/?page_id=246 ) and a story line that can be produced on a small budget with earning potential in the 100 millions +.

Following a summer of mega-budget movie flops such as Johnny Depp's 'Lone Ranger' (215 million budget), Channing Tatum and Jamie Fox's 'White House Down' (150 million budget), Will Smith's 'After Earth' (130 million budget) to name a few. And where the most profitable movie of the summer was 'Insidious 2' (a small 5 million dollar budget).

This proves once more that people are driven to see movies about interesting stories acted by people they care about, not by the size of the budget. The fact that 'Twisted Seduction' is not a mega-budget blockbuster is irrelevant to its potential success. It should even be an added bonus for the studios, the fact that it can be produced for a few dollars minimizes the risks and makes them virtually nonexistent.

Given this entire combination of elements listed above, this should be a no-brainer.

Taking a look back at the early beginnings of 'Twisted Seduction' and where it might be heading with the remake and all. It might just become one of the greatest Hollywood success stories ever seen. In which case, if it's ever made into a bio-pic, I'll be first one in line to see the story of the little movie that could.

-M.